


Play Pretend

by bbluejoseph



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Character Death?, Forests, Gen, Spooky, TOPFL Halloween Challenge 2019, barely, but not really, horror?, my first non joshler fic??? oof, they're really just friends here, vaguely intense?, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 23:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21188036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bbluejoseph/pseuds/bbluejoseph
Summary: They cannot fail again.





	Play Pretend

They wander through the dark, the boy with the paint on his hands and the boy with the red around his eyes. 

The boy with the red eyes has a candle. Small as it is, it's the only visible light source. The moon is absent; the stars, blinked out like broken bulbs. There's no breeze, and the only sound is the boys crunching the dead leaves beneath their shoes as they walk.

"We've been going in circles," the boy with the red eyes says. "Tyler, look. Didn't we pass this boulder before?"

"I don't know." The boy with the paint pauses to observe the boulder in question. "I don't know, Josh. They all look the same."

"There's got to be a way out of here." Josh turns to the left. "Let's go this way."

"I think this is the way we went last time," Tyler complains, but follows him.

The leaves are still in the branches above them, glinting slightly in the light from the candle. Moss grows beneath their feet, and small, dark mushrooms grow on the edges of the thin path. Even the trees are black, their trunks looking slimy and soft. It would be beautiful if they weren't so lost.

A breeze blows through the air, soft as a baby's breath, and the candle flickers. Josh cups his hand around the flame. "If this keeps up, we'll lose the light. Do we have any more matches?"

Tyler checks his bag. "One."

Josh keeps walking, squinting into the darkness. "What else?"

"My knife, some rope, and a blanket."

Neither of them speaks for a moment, each wrapped up in their own anxiety over their lack of supplies, their lack of direction, their mission itself. They've tried so hard, they've come back here so many times. They cannot fail again.

Abruptly, the breeze picks up again, and the candle goes out.

"Fuck, fuck," Tyler says, scrambling for his bag. 

Something shrieks loudly, directly ahead of them, and they see a blurry figure stumbling through the trees. Josh drops the candle.

"Run!" Josh yells, and they rush in the opposite direction, pushing through thickets and underbrush. They have no light to guide them, no saving grace, and the creature, whatever it is, is close. They can hear its ragged breaths. 

Then the trees end, abruptly, and a deep trench looms beneath them. There's no time to stop, no time to slow down, and they slip right off the edge, into the endless dark below.

"Dammit!" Tyler hits his controller against his leg. Josh just sighs, frustrated at their defeat yet again.

"Should I just look up the cheats online?" he asks. 

Tyler shakes his head swiftly. "No, no. We're gonna get Blurryface, and we're gonna get him the good-old fashioned way."

"By repeatedly dying trying to find our way out of the forest?" Josh asks dryly.

"Exactly." He raises a brow, teasing. "Unless you're scared."

Josh grins. "Far from it. Let's get him."

They start over again.

**Author's Note:**

> wanted to post one more spooky fic before the TOPFL halloween challenge ends! I still have some spooky fics planned out though, just not enough time to finish them right now. I may post them later so keep an eye out!
> 
> I don't know what game they're playing, it's very loosely based on something I watched dan and phil play once for spooky week


End file.
